Rafaela

The Atlético de Rafaela had organised a 500-mile road race on temporary layouts since 1926 when it acquired land to the north of Rafaela, Santa Fe. It opened a dirt oval to host the race on 23 May 1953 and the longest oval in the world was paved in 1966. The club managed to attract USAC to hold its first National Championship races outside North America in 1971. These were a pair of 150-mile races with points awarded separately but $75,069-purse decided on aggregate. A crowd of 47,000 saw Al Unser’s Colt-Ford beat Lloyd Ruby (Mongoose-Ford) in both heats. The second race had to be stopped for 30 minutes when Bentley Warren crashed, and his car caught fire. The Turismo Carretera used the oval interspersed by three chicanes from 1987.